The British singer-songwriter fills us in on his rise to fame.

"I'm going to go home and watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer," says Ed Sheeran after serenading a sold-out crowd at his Radio City Music Hall headline show. The 22-year-old Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter isn't concerned with being anything other than who he really is: the folk-pop rapper your parents might actually listen to. And so far, this refreshing approach seems to be getting him places. Don't believe us? Ask his 6.5-plus million Twitter followers, nearly 3 million Facebook fans, and the thousands of screaming girls who show up at countless concerts simply to see him.

Some may think Ed is an overnight music sensation, but the Halifax, England, native grew up in an artistic home where his love of music was nurtured at a young age. "My parents worked in the art world," Ed says. "They were really supportive of my music in that they allowed me to drop out of school and move out of our home, which not many parents would do."

Marching to his own beatbox has certainly paid off for the rising superstar. In 2010 alone he played more than 300 shows, from homeless shelters to slam poetry sessions to open-mic nights. During a brief L.A. gigging stint he caught the eye of actor Jamie Foxx (who gave him a couch to crash on), and at the front lines of London hip-hop battles he befriended the U.K.'s best underground rappers (who played an instrumental role in the making of one of his EPs). "I think I've been around for a while. But I still have to pay my dues," Ed says of his relatively recent American fame. "I've got to be known as the new kid [a little longer]."

Want more? Read the full story in the August issue of Teen Vogue, on newsstands July 2.